Hi all.

I am always interested and enjoy music from a black society (sorry, if that term is not so appropriate)and that includes Gospel style as well. I came across this website, which sell a lot of instruction DVDs to a gospel style.

Here is the link
http://www.gospelskillz.com/gospel-piano-lessons/

I wonder if any you have experienced any those DVDs. I am planing to buy one but I am not sure which one exactly to get (Although I do know which one exactly not to get!)Any recommendation? Please give some comments or suggestion if you have ones.

I have the Ethel Caffie-Austin DVD. It is amazing. It's worth the price just to hear her play and sing. If you're not comfortable with basic chords and their inversions, at least in the key of C, then it might be too advanced.

I also have the Ethel Caffie-Austin DVDs. I also agree that her playing is absolutely amazing. Her approach is to take you through fairly well known traditional gospel hymns/tunes showing the viewer how they can add to a simple version of the hymn or tune to make it sound more complex.

I think that this DVD set is more appropriate for intermediate and advanced players rather than beginners. It also helps if you can also read music as the written score for most of her explanations are provided.

I am not familiar with any of the other products listed.

When she sings "Angels Watching Over Me", she does it totally deadpan and matter-of-fact, without putting any show-womanship into it. That one deadpan performance has more soul than 10 ululating RnB divas.

Here is Dr Ethel singing "Angels Keep Watching Over Me".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_lfU3CqxfA

On the DVD she goes into more detail on how she plays it, but just the song is priceless.

Patrick

Thank you to you all. I have watched that DVD and I think I will buy it.

But are there also other DVDs that I should (or shouldn't) check out too? I am interested in ones from Jamal Hartwell. The one called "tritones" looks interesting to me. What do you guys think? Is this guy too much like a sales man?

There seem to be several different styles of gospel, including a recent variation that uses a lot of extended chords that, to me, wash out the sound. I don't know this other DVD that you mention, but I would watch and listen to demo's of the lessons to determine if you want to achieve the sound that is being taught.

I do own the Ethel Caffie-Austin set. It's very, very good.

Also... I have never lived in US before. I would like to ask if a online-shopping music website like this would give have any "sales" seasons??? These DVDs are not cheap at all. And I do not want to spend too much on what I am not looking for.

Sometimes the demo lesson doesn't really tell much. Some of them are just talking what the lesson will be about but didn't really shows how they teach you. Some of them shows how they teach you, but then it is just a few second and not long enough for you to evaluate their teaching.

Any comments on these issues?